'Seasons of Heaven' is a beautiful Nintendo Switch-exclusive adventure

Nintendo looks to have plenty of games in development for its Switch console, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and what appears to be an original 3D Mario, but a third-party developer has a project in the works that looks just as majestic. Seasons of Heaven is an adventure releasing exclusively on the Nintendo Switch, and it centers around a boy and his dog.

In development at French studio Any Arts Productions — Seasons of Heaven stars a young boy named Yann, who has Asperger syndrome, and his French bulldog named Ani, as they navigate a post-apocalyptic world. The game is based on a French novel of the same name written by Nico Augusto, and in contrast to the beautiful screenshots released thus far, the game’s world sounds like an excruciating place. Animals have been made extinct, eaten by man as waste destroyed the land under their feet. Trees are dwindling. Water has been polluted to the point of not being drinkable.

In the novel, Yann and Ani share a telepathic connection and this could be the narrative reason behind one of Season of Heaven‘s gameplay features: the ability to control both characters. In stark contrast to the similar The Last Guardian, you won’t have to suggest Yann’s furry friend does something — you can control him to do it yourself.

Seasons of Heaven uses Unreal Engine 4 and its power shows in the screenshots we’ve seen. Light shines through trees, offering a bit of hope in what is otherwise a depressing world and individual dandelions poke up through the grass. Just exactly what the gameplay is going to be like remains a mystery, through a statue with two lasers shooting from its eyes suggests that the game will feature Zelda-like puzzle elements.